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Rick Ellis writes "Sunday at the 2005 Tokyo Anime Fair in Japan,
Cartoon Network unveiled the highly anticipated new series, IGPX. It's a co-production with Production I.G. and Bandai Entertainment and will be the Cartoon Network's first original 'Toonami' series."

Considering that weekly fansubs and scanlations of Naruto are still being done (decent quality too) I doubt that they will be stopping anytime soon.

Been buying the VIZ translation of Naruto, its been alright definately want to smack some of the translation decisions that were made (Byakugan being called Evil Eye... ) definately want to see how the subtitles of the anime go on the official DVDs before I start buying them.

The problem is that the FCC requires that if you use SAP for a second audio channel, that channel's closed caption track must be in the same language, meaning you could see it in english with english subtitles (if you call the misspelled crap in the CCs subtitles) or japanese with japanese subtitles.

(Turns on The Fairly Oddparents.)
(Turns on audio subcarrier. English with blind narration.)
(Turns on CC. English without blind narration. If there was blind narration on the CC, I'd be ready to smack someone.)

You wouldn't have to put the subtitles in the closed captions... just overlay them directly on the video being broadcast. Of course, this is a little unfair to the Japanese speakers who don't want to read the subs, just watch the show in their own language...

The music in FLCL is performed by The Pillows, a Japanese garage band of little fame beyond their participation in the show. I'm sure there was no trouble securing the rights to all their materials for the US release. What musical cue are you talking about?

The soundtrack for Azumanga Daioh is mostly assembled by a J-Pop "supergroup" called Oranges and Lemons. Again, the music was produced specificlly for the show, so it's hard to imagine there were many "rights" issues in exporting it.

Given the fact that series (Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu Yu Hakusho, Cardcaptor Sakura, DragonballZ) have shown that kids don't care about competent dubbing, I doubt Toonami will have too much of it. But comparing the [Adult Swim] anime to the subbed version, the dubs of many of the series they run have been very high quality.Fullmetal Alchemist, [Adult Swim]'s latest anime draw, has even appeared in its entirety, with no content dubbed out (at least, with the last episode comparison I read). Also given the fact that Toonami has been relegated to the late-afternoon Saturday block once a week, its popularity has gone down (at least in the communities I frequent). Right now, I think [Adult Swim] is the main anime draw for cartoon network, and will stay that way.By the way, Naruto is coming to Toonami. Which means it'll be shown probably once a week on Saturday. All 200+ episodes of it. That's over 4 years. And even if they do show it multiple times on Saturday, Cartoon Network will probably only buy it a couple seasons at a time, and just keep re-showing the first few until people get tired of it. That's what they did with DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho Samurai Champloo is coming also coming to CN, on [AS].

Minor nit, Naruto in Japan is only up to episode 128 (and this is counting the hour long specials as 2 episodes each). While I don't doubt they could run to 200+ episodes, they have not done so yet. Many series get killed at fairly arbitrary times (if the storyline starts to suck and viewership goes down, the network WILL can a series; or if the creators start asking for too much money).

While I don't doubt they could run to 200+ episodes, they have not done so yet. Many series get killed at fairly arbitrary times

A lot of manga-based shows like Inu-Yasha go off the air because they simply run out of manga to animate and so they end abruptly - occasionally getting finished off in OVAs. Some get made-for-TV endings (Midori no Hibi) and some get made-for-TV filler (Rurouni Kenshin). Since Naruto is due to run out of manga pretty soon, it could go either way.

As much as I loved the series, unfortunately you can't really make a 3rd season of Big O. The series ended. Think of it like the Anime version of The Truman Show. But instead of just giving up, the "producers" reset everyone's memories (The day 40 years ago when everyone in Paradigm City lost their memories). So its really just a never ending loop, Roger will keep finding out that everything's a fake, then the whole world will get reset.

In IGPX, the year is 2048 and the "IGPX" has become the world's most-popular sport. It's so big that an entire city was built for the racing industry where competitions take place on a huge, 60-mile track called "The Big Eye." In the "Immortal Grand Prix," two teams of three Mechs, high-tech fighting machines driven by humans, race at speeds greater than 350 mph.

Gah. Mechs. Before I clicked on the link I knew there would be mechs in there somewhere. I could care less about damn gun mech-centric anime.

Why do all these shows nowadays focus on some "competition" like a race, or a card tournament? The stupidest one I've seen is that kid's show on saturday morning where a giant arena of people gathered to watch kids fight with spinning tops! It was like ten-thousand people all looking down at a little 2 sq-ft board with little spinning tops smacking into each other, while prebuscent kids yelled at the top of their lungs to... I don't know... get the tops to hit each other harder or something. It made no sense.There's never any real conflict in these shows, the 'evil' character is just another player in the 'tournament'. When Optimus Prime and Megatron fought, they didn't pull out little decks of cards or summon holographic monsters to fight for them, they went out there and beat the shit out each other! And it wasn't for some lame 'tournament', it was because the Decepticons were trying to take over the whole freakin' world! I tell ya... thank god for Justice League Unlimited, or kids today would have no sense of proper cartoon violence![end rant]

The fact is, no non-prime time animated shows make *all* their money from merchandising deals. It doesn't matter how good the ratings are, they never get enough money from ads to cover production costs. If you're cartoon isn't selling toys, shirts, lunchboxes, etc, it's losing money, period.

That's why Static Shock ended even though it was something like the number one or two highest rated american-produced kids cartoon. They couldn't get a toy company to agree to a merchandising deal, and had to stop pr

Yeah, but so were He-Man and Transformers, just glorified toy commercials really. I see your point, but I guess we kids in the 80's had actually writers like Larry DiTillio and Joe Michael Straczynski working on our cartoons. They tended to infuse actual stories and characters in around the toy commercial aspects.Who knows, maybe this IGPX thing will be good, being coproduced with CN picks my hopes up a little. (i never saw the original micro-series)

The stupidest one I've seen is that kid's show on saturday morning where a giant arena of people gathered to watch kids fight with spinning tops! It was like ten-thousand people all looking down at a little 2 sq-ft board with little spinning tops smacking into each other

Well, "Robot Wars" did so well, they figured "Dreidle Wars" was worth a shot!

Because it requires effort to come up with conflict to lead a narrative all the time. There are only so many little old ladies that can be kidnapped that the hero cares about and will feel a deep sadness when the villain... offs her! resulting in him breaking through and reaching Super Saijin Eleventeen.

It's also easier to come up with tougher villains. "Wow, that's Johnny Loadeddice, he ALWAYS ROLLS 20s." Just have him crush more kittens as he walks into the arena then the last guy, and you know he's a ba

good god i hope a tv producer doesn't read that, or else kids'll be watching that crap next season! it was bad enough when they messed up Transformers with "Robots in Disguise" and the one where they ran around collecting the little robots.

Believe it or not, your silly description of a potential transformers series is VERY similiar to what the WB was asking Bruce W Timm (of Batman: TAS fame) to produce. A futuristic world where teenagers fight cyborg mutant versions of Batman's old enemies using a card-bas

Good mecha is hard to come by (Original Getter robo and the original Gundam come to mind) but poor mecha is easy to come by and little kids love toy robots. So CN just keep saying and getting shows based on poor mecha rather then the good stuff, so all you see is 2D characters throwing in poor one liners and repeating each week. Theres a big difference between what CN shows and what any self respecting mecha fan would watch..

Theres a big difference between what CN shows and what any self respecting mecha fan would watch.

Thanks for pointing out that not mech shows are created alike. I actually liked Patlabor, but in that show the mechs were little more than props in a police anime. They were police cars with legs. I loved Nadesico and its mech parody Gekiganger. But Evangelion bored me long before I could get to the fscked-up half dozen episodes at the end.

Exactly. In alot of Gundam mecha is just there to advance the plot and to make money to continue the story (original is an example of this) where as the latest ones (everything post G) focuses more on flashy mecha then characters. But depending on which camp you talk to (Old fans or new fans) you will get different opinions on which is better or worse. Although there is some totally vile Gundam around, but theres also some amazingly good Gundam..

Maybe this explains the Anime version of the Powerpuff Girls that has been spotted? Maybe CN is trying to get a presence in Japan?

Hmm I don't think so.

a) Rowdy is a fan. And he included some Nickelodeon characters too.

b) The powerpuff girls were actually a parody of anime girls. And the related Show, dexter's lab, also makes fun of Mechs. And MEGAS XLR made fun of the following Anime Series: Voltron, Galaxy Express 999, Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, G-Force, need I say more?:P

That's an interesting development, I wonder what the guy drew this [deviantart.com] would think. He's been doing a comic strip of sorts featuring said girls in an anime sort of style for a while now...

I stopped watching toonami when they stopped showing it on weekdays. The worst part was they replaced it with meguzi or something, which is total crap. Now I hardly watch cartoon network. I used to watch it a lot.

I've not watch Cartoon Network other than for Adult Swim for a while now, but isn't Toonami still on, just before Miguzi? But you're right, Toonami is just a shell of its Moltar-hosted days. Man, it used to be so cool....

Miguzi is Cartoon Network's (relatively) new weekday afternoon block. It turns out that Toonami has been relocated to weekends exclusively now on CN. Miguzi's bumper segments are more technicolor than Toonami's slick, dark feel. (Well, originally it was slick and dark, later on it looked like they were trying too hard. The days when Toonami was hosted by Moltar and "dared" to show Big O during the middle of the day are long over.)

Miguzi is also friendlier to American cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja

Just what we need, more bug eyed cartoon freaks. Is there some sort of contest among the anime people to see who can do a whole cartoon in the fewest frames? Can't they be a little more..oh, I don't know,animated?

"Blending the quality and style of anime with Western storytelling, IGPX will be the first instance of a U.S. cable network working directly with a Japanese animation studio to create an original series."

The reason I watch anime is because I like the Japanese storytelling. If I wanted Western storytelling then I would watch one of the normal shows that are on TV! While I do enjoy the anime art style, I certainly am not going to watch a bad show just because of its art.

While I do enjoy the anime art style, I certainly am not going to watch a bad show just because of its art.

OK, I'm going to admit something that might get me flamed, but I like InuYasha because of the storytelling and character development (when [as] deigns to air new episodes). My wife can't stand it and cringes when I put it on, claiming I only like it because it's Japanese.

It's a cheesy soap opera but I love watching the relationships developing and the conflict Kagome has between the feudal era and

Bravo! I admit, it is one of the shows that I enjoy - along with Fullmetal Alchemist, Samurai Jack, and One Piece [toei-anim.co.jp] (The Fansubbed version, not the abomination on "4Kids TV" - blecch!) among others.

I enjoy the style of anime, but frankly the quality of most made-for-TV anime is pretty low. That's kind of the point--they cut corners so they can churn out shows like mad. Sure, maybe Gendo Ikari looks cool with his hands crossed in front of his mouth, the animators were more concerned with getting away with not animating his mouth. Somehow I doubt this series is going to be any different.

[adult swim] already has their own original series, so it's great that Toonami has their own series. I mean Toonami to me is it's own network. I mean a few days ago, the Nielsen ratings started couting [adult swim] as it's own network.

As much as I like anime, I don't think I can sit thru another mech vs. mech anime program. That particular genre has gotten very stale and repetitive. Ghost in the Shell, Big O, Cowboy Beebop, Full Metal Alchemist offer much better entertainment.

Some of the best anime CN had came from Pioneer, not Bandai. Programs like Tenchi Muyo and Pilot Candidate were cool. Unfortunately, CN and Pioneer parted company which is too bad, because Pioneer has a lot of good programs to offer.

Umm, yeah, I want to see Samurai Jack back. I'm a long time fan of animation (Japanese or otherwise) and also love well-written or uniquely written stories. One of the, ohh call it top 20 comics for unique stories was one that had no words in it at all - it was a story for GI Joe that centered around Snake Eyes. All emotions, everything, was conveyed through artwork and the story was, well, well written (drawn). The same is true for one of the best Samurai Jack's that aired - basically no words and all was conveyed through imagery and natural sounds.

Still, all in all, I want to see more Samurai Jack back on Cartoon Network. GitS: Standalone Complex, Cowboy Bebop, and Full Metal Alchemist are also good to watch plus I'd also like to see a complete run of Witch Hunter Robin.

Not only is this not the first time an American cable network has had a hand in producing an anime, it's not even the first time Cartoon Network has... They were the driving force behind the production of the second season of 'Big O' (An homage to all the old super robot shows...with an unfortunate name.), several years after the original was produced.

Personally, I can't see this being good, I'll reserve judgement of course, but still... We Americans tend to destroy even the best of series with general carelessness when it comes to execution.

Without resorting to non-opposable digits, I can count the English dubs that don't make me reach for the nearest sharp object with which I can kill myself. And I can't even begin count the number that are so bad that I'll settle for a blunt object to just beat myself unconscious.

We have more movie and television media than any other country on the planet...why can't we find voice actors who can, you know, act? Of course, the simple answer is, we can, even I know they're out there... But the licensees don't feel like paying for a decent dub...and so, that's all we get exposed to. Just once, I'd like a mainstream channel to air anime with SUBTITLES. (Even International Channel changed most of their anime programming to dubs...so what exactly is the point of the channel now?) But then, I don't really care. I don't have cable or broadcast or anything... I just download raws of the latest series from Japan and wait patiently for the DVDs. ^_^

I've heard that Haley Joel Osment may be cast as the lead role. He was excellent in some other voice-over roles, like Sora from Kingdom Hearts. It'll be interesting to see what this joint production will look like.

Perhaps Slashdot needs an "Anime" section, so people like you could filter such stories out completely, while those of us who can name the song used as the ringtone of Hoshino Aya's cellphone can still get our fix without bothering you.

(BTW: It's "Beatiful Dreamer", which also happens to be used by Yuya's phone. Yes, I'm a huge nerd for knowing that. Yes, you are also a huge nerd if you know what show I'm talking about.)

It doesnt take a genious to realise why this is here. "Geeks" stereotypically love stuff like Gundams and whatnot, with it's well developed universe. What Cartoon network are doing is capitalizing on the (Also mentioned here on Slashdot) fan-subbing movement, and producing an original series in that style, meeting a growing need.
It's not going to make CNN, but for a place that covered the relevent material, and since the subject matter has a clear link to the readership of this site, that is why it's here

A: CN is not a children's network, have you seen [adult swim] that was my first exposure to Cowboy Bebop, i, like many other people, never really knew about anime before that

B: this isn't a poorly dubbed show, this is coproduced in America, so the dialogue will be natively written and performed in both languages

C: they've been "riding this Japanese fad" for over 10 years, how long do fads last?

D: alot of kids watch anime on Cartoon Network because its their only exposure, this affects the next generation of sci-fi fans. alot of people on Slashdot probably have kids who are into Toonami and anime, and would be interested in this

E: because its cool, its news... its for nerds... and if you're an animation fan (like many/.'ers) its stuff that matters

B: this isn't a poorly dubbed show, this is coproduced in America, so the dialogue will be natively written and performed in both languages

You mean, like Ghost In The Shell (the first one made by Oshii san) ?It was the same situation than the one here, and the english dub was AWFUL. We french, english anime fans could tell you you would be far better off watching the japanese dub. Japanese staff would not even comment on it, to tell you how bad it was.

Maybe you and your friends are big on downloading fansubs, but the majority of people aren't. Most people get their anime on TV, some from the DVD rack at the store and a small minority from BitTorrent. And since TV exposure has a huge impact on popularity and DVD sales, what the Cartoon Network is airing matters.

I'd rather watch high quality dubs than poor quality fansubs. In my experience, fansubs are usually really crappy video quality, while dubs (on the net) are usually ripped from DVD and are much beter quality. The oggs are nice, they have english/japanese audio and subs. And I do like Cartoon Network, shows like Megas XLR, Justice League, and Teen Titans are awesome Cartoon network only shows.

I'd rather watch high quality dubs than poor quality fansubs. In my experience, fansubs are usually really crappy video quality, while dubs (on the net) are usually ripped from DVD and are much beter quality.

Fansubs typically come out at low quality because they're done on a fast deadline. Many fansub groups crave popularity so they work to get the show subbed and on the torrent as fast as possible. So the quality suffers.

DVDs often have more accurate subtitles and the quality of dubs is good (in ge

Fansubs typically come out at low quality because they're done on a fast deadline. Many fansub groups crave popularity so they work to get the show subbed and on the torrent as fast as possible. So the quality suffers.

Some fansub groups work solely for speed. Others are heavily focused on good codecs, heavy use of filters, and quality encodings to get a really good picture.

But it's not so much "fansub v DVD" as "TV Rip v DVD." The vast majority of fansubbed series are recorded off TV, so of course the

this maybe true in some cases but fansubs have now almost perfected really high quality videos. As good as most movie rips.

and not all groups speed sub (The ones that do tend to have a veyr limited fanbase) people who do really old series they love (stuff like Godmars, Mazinger and the REALLY old Gundam) don't need to rush so they do really good subs. Fansubbing in the last few years has changed greatly..

Oh and go buy the Zeta Gundam box set and I dare you to say it's got good subs.. It's dubtitles.. and

Tsunamis have been around long before 1997, they've been killing millions of people since the dawn of time, it was a thoughtless name back in 1997, they may as well have called it Toonberculosi

So have hurricanes. And tornados. And asteroids. And comets. But nobody complained when Honda called their motorcycle the Honda Hurricane. I guess if the PC-police were around back then, they would have came up with sensational arguments such as "How could you name a motorcycle after a horrible storm that kills mill